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LITTLE SERMONS 
FOR TO-DAY 



1 



BY 



CLYDE SHEPARD 



LITTLE SERMONS FOR TO-DAY 



LITTLE SERMONS 
FOR TO-DAY 



BY 

CLYDE SHEPARD 

Minister of the Mount Hollywood Congregational Church, 

Los Angeles; Editor of Christian Health 

Magazine 



CKriitian Health Magazine 
Lot Angeles 



3Xl 0,13 



Copyright 1916 

By Clyde Shepard 

Los Angeles, California 



DEC 27 1918 

<Dci.A446957 



TO THE MEMORY OF 

iJIg IRatlpr 

Whose consecrated life was to me ample evidence 
of God's dwelling" in humanity, and whose 
prayers followed me through many wind- 
ing ways until they drew me into the 
work of the ministry, to live the 
life of sacrifical service, and 
to be a bearer of the 
Good News; 



&g 3Tailf*r 



Whose triumph over almost insuperable diffi- 
culties, whose success under heavy handi- 
caps, and whose firm adherence to the 
right, even in the face of personal 
loss, are a challenge to his son's 
fidelity and devotion; 

Gftjia ffiook 1h <£rat*fitllg and 
Cmrittgig Srfciratrb 



CONTENTS 



Introduction, by Dr. Charles Edward Lockc.ll 

To-Day— Poem 13 

The Church For To-day 15 

The National Spirit of To-day 20 

Vanishing Opportunities 23 

The Awakening of the Masses — Poem 26 

Half-Baked Goodness 27 

Is the World Content? 30 

Is There a Simple Gospel? 33 

Religious Bosses 36 

The Christian a World-Citizen 38 

Worry , 41 

Making Good in a Pinch 56 

God in Business 59 

"Git To Laffin"— Poem. 62 

A Universe Without God 63 

The Secret of Power 66 

The Survival of the Fittest 69 

The Unseen Battle Line— Poem 73 

The Church and The Social Evil 74 

Great Measures for Great Needs 90 

The Helmsman 92 

A Good Place to Live 95 

"My Pal"— Poem 98 

The Heart of Your Neighbor 99 

Living To-Day 101 



Little Sermons for To-day 11 



INTRODUCTION 



There is a perennial demand for good 
sermons and good preachers. The preach- 
er deals with subjects in which the soul 
of man is increasingly interested and con- 
cerned. The studious, sincere, consecrat- 
ed, and practical preacher will never lack 
for a good hearer. Having first gotten 
his theme into himself, it will not be diffi- 
cult to get his theme into his audience. 
The individuality of the preacher will fix 
the frontiers of. his influence. He must 
not be too dogmatic and never opinion- 
ated; he should be modest but sure of 
himself; always gentlemanly but tenaci- 
ous of his convictions; he should believe 
intensely what he preaches, and ingrati- 
ate his gospel with a pleasing personality. 
If his message is made to apply to the 
needs of a living people and a living age, 
then his living gospel will attract the peo- 
ple. Life should be his subject, life as in- 
terpreted by the Christ who came that 



12 Little Sermons for To-day 

they might have life and that they might 
have it more abundantly. 

These little sermons are like sparks 
from the anvil of a bright and busy 
young preacher. They are a credit to his 
spirit and to his genius. They have come 
from the forge of studious endeavor. They 
are little only in quantity, and are large 
in quality and purpose, and will be read 
with enjoyment and profit. I bespeak for 
this dainty volume a cordial welcome 
from those who can easily detect the 
worth and achievement of a diligent 
young minister of the Gospel. 

Charles Edward Locke. 



Little Sermons for To-day 13 



TODAY. 

Thank God for Today! 

When this morning's rising sun 

Burst the Orient bars of night, 

He sent his scouting rays afar, 

In file and troop and myriad horde, 

To spy the land — to look 

What evil had been wrought 

Under darkness' blighting pall — 

Whether, crouching 'neath the shadowy night, 

Man had marred the days' advance, 

While sun and sunbeam shone 

In the land that somewhere lies 

Between all yesterdays and all todays. 

The marshalled forces heeded well. 

In mist and haze of struggling dawn 

They fought. 

Till with golden shaft 

And conq'ring, bright'ning tread 

They routed from the king's domain 

The last black remnant, 

Stubborn, but forewarned by premonition's 

sign, 
Sneaking into a dank, secluded corner; 
Hoping against hope 
That the messengers of day 
Might not see; 
Or, seeing, would not enter. 
But into every nook and cranny 
And hiding quarter 
They pried and peeped, 
Then possessed. 
And Today was king o'er all the land. 



14 Little Sermons for To-day 

And when, in the first fair flush of victory, 

Capering the conqueror's dance 

In every dewdrop, in all the flowers and trees, 

On dull housetops now made to gleam, 

They brought report to the waiting sun 

Who, with smile of one who knows, 

Lifted his head 

Just over the brim of yesterday, 

They chanted: 

"It was but play, O Lord of Day, 

At thy inspired command, 
To win the fray and chase away 

The night from out the land. 

"Our best, O Sun, today we've done. 

Of all the trophies gay 
That we have won, since time begun, 

Today's the fairest day!" 



Little Sermons for To-day 15 



THE CHURCH FOR TODAY 

As Paul declared his purpose to become 
all things to all men that he might save 
them, so the institutions of organized 
Christianity must adjust themselves to the 
needs of succeeding years. Fishers of 
men cannot catch book-lover students 
and uncouth illiterates with one bait. The 
perch and the bass do not bite the same 
hook. Likewise the church cannot do its 
work in exactly the same way in the ninth 
century and the nineteenth. 

While the fundamentals of religion re- 
main identical in every generation and 
country, peculiar conditions and problems 
demand different emphases, and varying 
manners of presentation. In Luther's re- 
bellion against the abuse of forms and 
rites, his emphasis on justification by 
faith was the needed reform. When the 
Wesleyan revival found the theater and 
all amusement life immoral and degrad- 
ing, the logical application of moral 
teaching was to demand their elimination. 
In every age Jesus, the universal teacher 



16 Little Sermons for To-day 

and prophet, has the message that the 
time needs. 

Now what is the word of God to this 
decade ? We find the world in turmoil. 
Bloody war triumphs over home and 
church and state in Europe and parts of 
Asia and Africa. The rest of the world 
is unsettled — class pitted against class, 
man against man. There must be some 
message of the Christ that will reach the 
heart of today, and but waits for the 
prophets to declare it. 

Certain religious needs stand out boldly 
in the foreground of twentieth century 
thought and activities. They may be seen 
to some extent in current criticisms of 
the church; but more surely in the ad- 
vancing movements within the church. 
The groanings and travailings in the 
church of today are not from defeat, but 
from growth. Her life is a response to the 
new opportunities of the new century. 

Let me mention some points of the 
challenge of Jesus to this hour. And 
when I do you who read will say, "Why 
those are the universal things, the most 
important in every time and clime." True. 
They are. For always a crisis drives a 
man back to fundamentals, and he is 



Little Sermons for To-day 17 

ashamed for his neglect of them in the 
basking days of ease, when he might have 
incarnated them in his life. 

In this day of acid tests a church must 
have the spirit of service, even to its own 
destruction. God be praised for a church 
that recognizes the kingdom of God as 
bigger than itself, and grasps a greater 
task than adding to its own rolls and fi- 
nances. Thank God for a church that 
knows its purpose is not to advance itself, 
but to serve others. Church activities 
and funds driven to denominational suc- 
cess are too often antagonistic to the 
spirit of Him who commissioned his 
church not to be ministered unto, but to 
minister. Some figures of progress will 
acquire a new meaning when the great 
book of the kingdom is unfolded and the 
light of eternity falls across its tabula- 
tions. 

Only the church which is willing to 
serve the kingdom at its own expense can 
be freed from the charge of hypocrisy 
and insincerity when it lifts its voice to 
proclaim the ringing challenge of Jesus 
to this self-strangled generation — that in- 
dividuals, institutions and nations live and 
exist for service. Two thousand years 
ago Jesus flung this revolutionary torch 



18 Little Sermons for To-day 

at humanity, and we have been loath to 
take it up. Individuals seem to live for 
selfishness, our institutions are organized 
for profit, nations exist for aggrandize- 
ment, conquest and self-honor. The pres- 
ent failure of a civilization builded on this 
basis calls for a new venture — a launch- 
ing out into the deep of social life, sailing 
only on the teachings of Jesus. 

No sect can meet the needs of modern 
life unless it have within itself a basis for 
individual freedom. The days of coercion 
in doctrinal belief passed with the thumb- 
screw and the whipcord. The world cries 
aloud for an understanding fellowship 
that will receive and help without stereo- 
typing. A stereotyped soul is worse than 
a stale speech or a copy-cat book. 

The trials of society's institutions and 
men's hearts demand that we converge on 
the great central truths of Christianity. 
This is no time for quibbling. Every re- 
ligious teacher who opens his mouth to 
browbeat and dogmatize ought to be sil- 
enced as a relic of the eighteenth cen- 
tury. It is certain that in his purpose for 
this sad, uncertain age Jesus has abso- 
lutely no place for the hair-splitter. 

The greatest need of all is a splendid, 



Little Sermons for To-day 19 

broad, mature faith. A faith which can 
see the mantle of glory fall from beloved 
institutions, that can hear the successful 
attack upon old ideas, and yet consecrate 
itself to the eternal verities, confident that 
the good shall never pass away. In our 
time, when old established walls are fall- 
ing, only the magnificent faith of a 
prophet will suffice — a faith which knows 
the foundations do not crumble, and in 
the maelstrom still will cry "Thus saith 
the Lord." 

No dogmatism or empty, high-sounding 
phrases will attract the ears of the bleed- 
ing world. Whoever has anything to say 
to this sick year must bring with him a 
promise of power. Not theory, philos- 
ophy or platform, but power. The Chris- 
tian brings the only adequate power — 
that of the Christ reincarnate in his fol- 
lowers. This is the great redemptive 
theme, the hope-song of all the ages, and 
the only thing big enough in challenge to 
arrest the attention of this mad civiliza- 
tion, and great enough in power to do 
that which it proclaims. 



20 Little Sermons for To-day 



THE NATIONAL SPIRIT OF TODAY 

The people who live between the At- 
lantic and the Pacific from Canada to 
Mexico are glad today for their dwelling- 
place. There is a deep patriotism run- 
ning undercurrent through all our think- 
ing and our doing. The preparedness pa- 
rades of 1916 were misnamed. They 
were demonstrations of national spirit, 
as much greater than the policy of pre- 
paredness as the flag is more than its staff, 
as the country is nobler than its theories, 
as the people are greater than a platform. 

It is a new thing in the world for a na- 
tion's eyes to watch while a nation's feet 
are at march, and no enemy in view. No 
man in all this year's enthusing crowds 
had aught to think of England or Ger- 
many, of foe on land or sea. Our thought 
was of peace, and of the land we love. 

The Spirit of 1916 in America is new. 
Or is it the Spirit of 1776 reincarnated in 
twentieth century form ? I am constrained 
to find familiar features as I scan the 



Little Sermons for To-day 21 

spirit of Today, with my memory in the 
birth-chamber of Freedom. 

Battle-flags and battle-tales have arous- 
ed human fervor in other days. This is a 
year that witnesses a people aroused to 
shouting and doing when a new hope 
flashes an old word to us, and we dedicate 
ourselves to the cause of peace. When 
master and man, white and color, male 
and female, culture and crudeness, wealth 
and labor, forget their apparent differ- 
ences and unite under the sacred banner 
of the stars and stripes to perpetuate its 
ideals, we are learning the meaning of 
democracy. 

Preparedness as a policy may or may 
not be correct. We may blunder in many 
ways, economic, political, diplomatic. But 
so long as the heart of America beats 
with the love of American ideals, and 
thrills at the thought of a world at peace 
in brotherhood, we cannot fail in our duty. 

We have learned in this bloody year the 
significance of the Banner of Liberty. We 
know it was not made to wave in battle, 
and to drip with blood. It stands for the 
ideals of a nation, the heart-beats of a 
people. In the red, white and blue are 
written democracy, brotherhood, liberty, 



22 Little Sermons for To-day 

peace. And when our thousands have 
thrilled at the sight of the colors this 
year, this new sight under the sun was a 
proclamation that America shall be true 
to herself and to humanity, and that the 
Star Spangled Banner shall forever wave 
over the Home of the Brave and the Land 
of the Free. 



Little Sermons for To-day 23 



VANISHING OPPORTUNITIES 

There is a time when the clay in the 
potter's hands is just right for the mould- 
ing. Then he may give it any shape he 
desires. If he attempt too early to do his 
work the form will not abide. Should he 
wait too long he cannot fashion it to his 
ideal. 

In the life of childhood there comes a 
day when the moulder of character may 
design its future. As the twig is bent 
so is the tree, and the grown tree is hard- 
ly changed. The church today recognizes 
that in the Sunday School is its supreme 
opportunity. The man who calls the Sun- 
day School "sissy" is a back number. The 
Church School is the most scientific, up- 
to-the-minute thing in civilization. Not 
that it has yet attained unto perfection of 
scientific principle and application, but 
that it fits more perfectly into the needs 
of this very hour than anything else under 
the flag. It prevents more crime than the 
courts. It builds more character than the 
schools. It saves more souls than the 



24 Little Sermons for To-day 

church. It makes a nation greater than 
commerce or learning or war. 

Plastic periods appear in the life of 
every person — days when the soul is open 
to impression. I may not lead my neigh- 
bor to a light that I have seen when he 
will not open his eyes. He cannot hear 
the music I would bring to his attention 
while his ears are stopped. But when his 
heart craves sympathy, I may lead him to 
love. When his soul feels the demand for 
goodness, I may take him to God. When 
he sees his own weakness and meanness, 
I may point the way to the cross where 
sin is taken away and weakness is changed 
to strength. 

Let me not, then, neglect the privileges 
of the plastic moments. These are the op- 
portunities which, slipping by today, are 
forever gone. In pottery, in childhood, 
in man's great moments, let appear forms 
and fashions of things to be. 

Our time is a period of plasticity in 
the whole world. The supreme challenge 
of the centuries comes now to him who 
believes in good and God. While the clash 
of earth's material forces are led by the 
demons of strife, and the mind of heath- 
endom aches with the pains of growth 
into civilization, let him who believes in 



Little Sermons for To-day 25 

the power of things spiritual use the 
chance to drive home his truth. Let him 
not now shirk, or else forever call him- 
self a traitor to the right. 

The world is "up in the air." Its mind 
reels, its heart trembles in uncertainty. 
We must have a world-sympathy, a world- 
vision, a world-work. We must cling 
fast to the faith that is within us, and 
shout aloud to our American civilization 
that it must trust in the unseen powers of 
love and peace and righteousness. We 
must go, and send the ambassadors of 
faith, into every unsettled country to say 
to the plastic peoples, "You must be 
moulded into manhood and womanhood 
for God." 



26 Little Sermons for To-day 



THE AWAKENING OF THE 
MASSES 

The pregnant sky o'er a busy age 

Holds beauty we ne'er have seen; 
And threatening portents there engage, 

To dim the glorious sheen. 
The sordid time hath not a mind 

To see the grandeur burn, 
Nor meaning-laden signs divine, 

Their storms' effects to turn. 

There stirs a power from its sleep — 

The prophets saw the hand 
Of cloud that led their rousing sweep — 

The oppressed of every land. 
But the busy, seeking, scheming world 

Cannot presage import, 
Till all its cherished plans are whirled 

In the tumult's frenzied sport. 

Where late was streaked the shining gleam 

Now purple forms are heaped. 
And, wierd, portentous, dark, they seem 

To gather for the leap. 
Fiery streaming brands begin 

To dart and flash and dance — 
'Tis the storm of the waking world akin 

Levelling lightning lance. 



Little Sermons for To-day 27 



HALF-BAKED GOODNESS. 

One way of determining the character 
of a person is to ascertain the nature of 
the things to which he gives first place. 
Their attributes will reveal his own. 

All attempts to level human qualities 
must fail. That 

"There is so much good in the worst of us, 
And so much bad in the best of us, 

That it hardly behooves any of us 
To talk about the rest of us," 

may be true, but its implied thrust at per- 
sonal excellence is false. True, all have 
within them some good, and every one has 
some defects. But there those who aban- 
don themselves to evil, while others eter- 
nally strive to attain the best. No man 
can wisely endeavor to put them in the 
same category. 

A great danger of our time, when all 
organizations and businesses are claiming 
to do good, is that we shall be satisfied 
with half-baked goodness, with service 
done in selfishness. I know a man who 
hesitated for a long time among several 



28 Little Sermons for To-day 

lines of professional work because in each 
there was traceable a possibility of doing 
good and of rendering service. The fact 
was that one of these contemplated pro- 
fessions had service as its own aim. That 
was all there was in it. The others had 
merely the possibility — their aims were 
wealth, position, power. The young man 
came to see that this seemingly small dif- 
ference is the most vital consideration, 
and he gave himself to the work which 
was pre-eminently good. 

Many businesses, organizations and pro- 
fessions do work of a Christian character 
as a sort of by-product. Or, ministering 
to selfish ends and in doubtful ways, they 
leave trace of work which the Master 
would do. Some organizations feel free 
to claim support in competition with the 
church because occasionally and to some 
degree they do work of a Christian nature. 

Countless lives make decisions on the 
same basis. Following their own desires, 
going the easy way, people are content 
that there shall be a little by-product of 
love and service somewhere. Such lives 
will not save the world, nor go far in its 
aid. The life which counts is the one in 
which service, goodness, Christ are pre- 
eminent. When William Booth was asked 



Little Sermons for To-day 29 

how it was that the Salvation Army under 
his guidance had done such marvelous 
work he answered, "Because I have 
sought only to serve God and humanity. 
Because God has all there is of me." 

Millions of men and women are chas- 
ing the selfish desires of their own lives. 
The suffering, aimless world does not 
need you and me if we are going to fall 
in with the mad millions. It does need 
us sorely, if we will make service first, 
put humanity ahead of ourselves, let 
Jesus have the place He claims — the 
head. 

The best prayer for a Christian is that 
of Paul — that among all things Christ 
should have pre-eminence. Not that we 
shall do His will when it can be done as 
we go about our own ways. Not that we 
shall do a little good if it can be done while 
we seek self-aggrandizement. No. A 
hundred institutions do that. A thous- 
and half-hearted, long-distance followers 
of the gleam are ahead of you. No. But 
that we put Him FIRST; that we do His 
will whether or no ; that we serve hu- 
manity with whom He identified Himself 
regardless of what it does to us ; that our 
lives be truly Christ on earth. 



30 Little Sermons for To-day 



IS THE WORLD CONTENT? 

"This is a pretty good world, and the 
preachers should let it alone. If the peo- 
ple are satisfied with themselves why 
shouldn't they be left to their satisfac- 
tion ?" This high-sounding slur has been 
hurled at every man who has tried to 
call an Israel from the flesh-pots. But 
the only leader who can justify his occu- 
pation of the position is one who will 
arouse people into new and loftier desires. 

The answer to this criticism however, 
lies deeper than that. The world is not 
satisfied. Nothing is settled until it is 
settled right. And so long as an individ- 
ual chases a false phantom of life, so long 
will his better hours upbraid and unsettle 
him. The world is not content, because 
it is so often condemned of itself. 

The world could not do without its 
preachers, prophets of righteousness, call- 
ing unwilling people to heights of char- 
acter they are loath to climb. Every one 
in his best hours sees a vision of devotion 
to righteousness; he needs some one to 
keep that light burning in his darker mo- 
ments. That is the preacher's function. 



Little Sermons for To-day 31 

It is his to proclaim the eternal strife be- 
tween right and wrong, and to enlist men 
to battle on the right side. 

Do you not know he is right? You 
will not deny that tomorrow you will re- 
fuse to become a murderer. You will not 
steal. No lie shall cross your lips to give 
you advantage over your neighbor. Why? 
Because your soul has answered that some 
ways are wrong, and some right. Where, 
then, will you draw the line? What is it 
that makes murder wrong and service 
right? Why is it beneath you to steal, 
and a best part of you to give? Why 
should you refuse to lie, and strive for 
truth? Why is love beter than hate? An- 
swer, Why? There can be no reason at 
all, except that God has drawn the line 
sharply between good and evil. The 
world needs to learn that, and to be filled 
with prophets leading it into the truth. 
As the individual halts between the two 
courses there can be no final solution of 
his perplexity until he gives himself un- 
reservedly to the right. Any other de- 
cision is a makeshift that will not stand 
the storms. 

Now when we go a step farther and say 
that in allegiance to the right one must 
give his allegiance to the Man of Galli- 
lee, we are met by the query, "Is He the 



32 Little Sermons for To-day 

Way, the Truth, the Life?" And bless- 
ings on the honest query. Know this, 
everything good in life has first been met 
by doubt. Galileo met nothing but doubt 
with his discovery. Men tried to laugh 
the early telephone out of endeavor, but 
yesterday men talked across the continent. 
We said an airship would not fly, and a 
submarine would not swim, but today 
they are the terror of the war. 

Doubt is good, it is a saviour, when it 
is the honest doubt of which Tennyson 
wrote, which demands and seeks the 
truth. Jesus recognized this when He 
said, "If any man will do His will, he shall 
know of the doctrine, whether it be of 
God, or whether I speak of myself." In 
other words, "If you have honest doubts, 
try me and you shall know." If any man 
will follow the gleam of light which is 
his, in the distinction between right and 
wrong, in his knowledge that service is 
the best end of life, that Jesus is the 
world's greatest teacher, he shall arrive 
at the sun, and know that Jesus is God. 
The world knows these things. It needs 
but to follow them earnestly. Seek right- 
eousness, give yourself to service, sit at 
the feet of this Great Teacher, and your 
doubts shall be resolved, and you shall 
know that He is God. 



Little Sermons for To-day 33 



IS THERE A SIMPLE GOSPEL? 

Occasionally some one breaks forth in 
a self-righteous demand for a preaching 
of the simple gospel. It seems to me his 
contention can be disposed of in short or- 
der and with simple statements. Usually 
he is speaking in criticism of another who 
is preaching in a fashion of which the corn- 
plainer does not approve. 

There is a kernel of the Christian mes- 
sage, It is that there is a way of salva- 
tion through Jesus Christ. But there is 
no such thing as the "simple gospel" de- 
manded by those who forbid the universal 
application of this message. What they 
desire is for a man to repeat over and 
over certain verses of Scripture, to know 
all their firsts, secondlies, etc., and to use 
a group of antiquated religious expres- 
sions that meant much to the worship- 
pers of another day, but are almost empty 
to the modern mind, and entirely out of 
place in modern terminology. 

When a man lifts his voice against so- 
cial and industrial injustice, the oppres- 
sor raises a cry for the "simple gospel. " 



34 Little Sermons for To-day 

When the church is militant against the 
legalized liquor traffic, its supporters, ar- 
dent enemies of the gospel message, are 
disturbed about the decay in the spirit of 
the church which is evidenced by such a 
harmful departure from the "simple gos- 
pel." When the gospel is made plain and 
meaningful to some stranger to the 
church who cannot think in its old terms, 
some Godly critic places his narrow big- 
otry between the hungry soul and God, 
crying out, "That is not the 'simple gos- 
pel/ " 

The gospel is as varied as human be- 
ings, as deep as life, as broad as man's in- 
terests. There is no narrow, restricted, 
holy field. God is God of all life. The 
message of Jesus is for the regeneration 
and purification of every man. Its aim is 
to make him clean in word, holy in deed, 
pure in thought, strong in soul, such a 
man as God can delight in. It aims to 
fill society with a new spirit, so that 
everywhere men will practice the princi- 
ples of love, and the kingdom of God will 
come on earth. 

Who can conceive of the innumerable 
realms of presentation yet untouched by 
evangels ? Let the holy fire of inspiration 
light up man's heart to find ways to God 



Little Sermons for To-day 35 

in paths yet unknown, and by all thoughts, 
all words, all deeds, by every glimmering 
spark that may draw a longing or a stub- 
born soul, let men be led to walk in the 
way that leads to life now and life ever- 
lasting. 



36 Little Sermons for To-day 



RELIGIOUS BOSSES 

Bossism is a destestable pollution 
wherever it is found. In politics it means 
corruption, in industry its fruit is oppres- 
sion, in the church it breeds stagnation, 
and in religious life it cannot exist with- 
out bigotry and hypocrisy. 

But the boss is not only the one who 
has the name. Often the meanest, meas- 
liest dictatorial spirit hides in the man 
who yells loudest about the bosses who 
have power. I have heard lamentations 
and groanings, with vengeful curses, 
come from the lips of one whose narrow- 
ness and bigotry are to the autocrat's as 
the ocean to the bucket. All he required 
to become the hardest, most over-bearing 
man-driver was the opportunity. Remem- 
ber that the pot called the kettle black. 
Most rulers are better than the complain- 
ing ruled would be. Half the loud-yell- 
ing critics of the over-lords are good be- 
cause they have to be. 

The spirit of bossism manifests itself 
in the despicable condemnation of those 
who live or believe a little differently 



Little Sermons for To-day 37 

from the critics. We cannot all have the 
same type of religious experience. We 
are different. In all Southern California's 
resplendent groves no two golden oranges 
have been sun-kissed into the same beauty 
of form and color. When the Divine 
Sculptor of the human face gave form 
to the beauty of the baby's countenance, 
he put aside the pattern, never to be used 
again. Just so, no two spiritual natures 
are exactly alike. Our experiences can- 
not be identical. When God grips us with 
his power, he deals with us as individu- 
als. 

Do not demand that every one come to 
the throne by the path that you took. Nor 
be dissatisfied that your way was differ- 
ent from another's. Suffice it that God 
dwells with each; that you have both 
found the way to Him. 



38 Little Sermons for To-day 



THE CHRISTIAN A 

WORLD-CITIZEN 

The man who has not the world-reach 
is out of date. The trouble with Europe 
now is that it is living in another age. 
They have not passed the ideals of the 
Feudal Lords. They have toyed with the 
sacred words, "Brotherhood of Man," but 
never learned their meaning. Narrow, 
provincial citizenship today bears fruit in 
hideous enmity. 

And yet the powers that be will not 
learn the lesson that the fruit is war be- 
cause the tree is of Hell. Every time 
peace is mentioned and we hope to catch 
a glimpse of human brotherhood, they set 
themselves to planning ways to cut the 
enemy's throat after the war is over. That 
is, they plan to make war, and call it 
peace. They forget humanity in pride 
and hate. The scheming men of Europe, 
planning peaceable destruction of war- 
time enemies, are dwarfed, shrunken cari- 
catures of manhood when seen in the light 
of world-citizenship. 

The bed-rock of truth, and of things as 



Little Sermons for To-day 39 

they should be in our hearts, was reach- 
ed the other day when a French soldier 
gave his last ounce of life to save a wound- 
ed German lying by his side. The German 
had lost one arm and the other hand, and 
was bleeding to death. The Frenchman 
tore off his shirt and with it staunched 
the flow of his enemy's blood. Then fall- 
ing back exhausted he died from his own 
wounds; but the man whom he had re- 
lieved was saved. When telling the story 
to his friends the German soldier said, "If 
I get to heaven, the first man I want to 
meet is that Frenchman." Yet, with hu- 
man vision stifled in the grip of war's hy- 
pocrisy, they go forth to kill that French- 
man's friends and brothers. Thus do they 
all make liars of their hearts. 

Christian love and sympathy reach 
around the world. Men are trying to 
squeeze God down into their narrow big- 
otry. They endeavor to ally him against 
a great mass of mankind. They cry out, 
not to the father of all, but to some clan- 
nish God, hating other men. And they 
will discover that such prayers, failing to 
find the God of love, fall back upon their 
hearts, galling venom, deadly to the spirit 
of man. 

Away with it! What think they? Is 



40 Little Sermons for To-day 

Jesus dead? Did he speak for naught? 
Have twenty centuries but swept us back- 
ward with their passing current? Can the 
Saviour of humanity be coaxed or threat- 
ened into bigotry, partiality, provincial- 
ism and hatred? Not so. His love em- 
braces all. None are without its scope. 
The follower of Jesus is a world-citizen, 
with brothers and interests wherever there 
is a human aspiration. 



Little Sermons for To-day 41 



WORRY 

Text: "Let not thy thoughts trouble 
thee." Dan. 5 :10. 

The king, to whom these words were 
spoken was manifesting a characteristic 
later seen in a people who pride them- 
selves on great advances over his knowl- 
edge and attainment. But, even yet, they 
have not learned to take the simple advice 
of the text. 

The king was sore troubled; his 
thoughts bothered him; he was worried. 
Now comes the queen to him with these 
words, "Let not thy thoughts trouble 
thee." I have not seen a better definition 
of worry than is suggested in this text. 
All the harm it brings to us comes from 
within ourselves, and when we worry we 
submit ourselves to an infliction which 
might be avoided. 

Everybody knows it is no fun to worry. 
No one would think of paying subscrip- 
tions to a periodical that contained only 
news or articles that would make him 
worry. You wouldn't pay admission to a 
concert for the purpose of being worried. 



42 Little Sermons for To-day 

It doesn't do any good. You may worry 
until your cheeks are white, your hair 
gray, your eyes black, and your system 
blue; and it won't do as much good as 
one good yawn. But worry does do 
things to the person whose mental house 
it inhabits. Here are some of those 
things. 

Worry gets its hold on the mind, and 
makes itself supreme. It soon weakens 
the will, and the power of decision. A 
man who will let himself worry, and dilly- 
dally between possible courses of action, 
will soon come to the place where dilly- 
dallying is about the best he can do. Valu- 
able assets in this age of strenuous activ- 
ity are the power of quick decision, and 
strength of will to carry out the course 
decided upon. Of these assets worry will 
rob every person who lets it get a hold 
in his mental habitation. 

Another thing it does is to poison pleas- 
ure. He who will worry about his work 
cannot get much pleasure from it. I 
worked in a mill by a man who dreaded 
criticism so much that at every difficult 
task he trembled, and wondered if his 
work would please the foreman; so that 
tomorrow's possible chagrin hung like a 
cloud over today's work. What he should 



Little Sermons for To-day 43 

have done was to say to himself, "This 
is my work, and I have a certain ability 
to meet it. I will do my best/' then gc 
at it, and leave tomorrow to care for it- 
self. 

You can't get any pleasure out of your 
work, or your religion, or your frolics if 
you worry about them all the time. I 
have gone out to skate upon the frozen 
surface of the lake after a dozen admoni- 
tions to be careful and a few tales of boys 
that were drowned sometime; and every 
creak of the ice sent a shiver through me. 
I have been in a boat upon the rippling 
waters of a gentle river, and worried 
about a ducking or wet feet or other 
things until most of the fun was gone. 

And physically there is something done 
to you by this, your subtle enemy. It 
takes appetite. A young man was asked 
by his physician how his appetite was, 
and he seemed to remember that it had 
not be so good lately. And he worried 
about it. Next meal he worried about it, 
and he could eat less. At night he didn't 
want a bite, and the next day his food 
choked in his throat. Perfectly natural. 

And sleep ! What troublesome thoughts 
do to sleep. They run away with it, 



44 Little Sermons for To-day 

dump it into a bottomless pit, or murder 
it before your eyes. Let them get one 
chance at you when you lie down for your 
rest, and the coveted sleep is gone. All 
of these influences mean that worry opens 
the way to disease. Worry about it, and 
you'll get it. There was typhoid in a cer- 
tain community where two men roomed 
together. They were duly informed and 
from that moment all one of them thought 
of was typhoid. He ate and drank and 
read and slept with typhoid in his mind 
until the way was open for any germ that 
came along singing its little song of poi- 
son, and he got some. The other took all 
precautions that he could, cleaned up the 
surroundings, and cleared out the mind 
as well ; and they couldn't find a place to 
stop. Two weeks ago a girl became so 
excited because of the possibilities of hy- 
drophobia that she got it without being 
near a dog. If you don't believe it try 
it yourself. 

Now worry works upon one's religion 
in the same way. If you will show me a 
woman who worries most of the time 
about the home, or the bills, or the chil- 
dren, I'll show you a lady whom you must 
approach gently, or she'll snap your head 
off. That poor fellow, play-fellow and 



Little Sermons for To-day 45 

yoke-fellow of worry, will soon be so self- 
ish he can't think of any one else. 

Faitji and peace fly out of the window 
when you open the door of your heart to 
distrust and troubled thoughts. Faith im- 
plies a trust that will not waste itself in 
useless w T ondering and puzzling. Peace 
cannot be where time and energy are 
spent in bothering about things as they 
are. Joy and faith and peace are of the 
fruits of religion, and worry robs the soul 
of these rich fruits as soon as it can get 
into the orchard where they grow. 

We can permit some evil if there is a 
recompense in good. A painful operation 
will be wise if it spare more pain in the 
future. Hard work we will do because 
there is a payment in results and in char- 
acter. But search from the dawn of his- 
tory until tomorrow; wander in every 
realm where men have lived ; study physi 
ology; bring forth the vague possibili- 
ties of psychology and you will return 
empty-handed if you have sought for a 
good result that worry has to offer. It is 
like kicking against the weather — per- 
fectly useless. 



46 Little Sermons for To-day 

Waintin' foh de sunshine, 

When de sky is gray; 
Whinin' an' a-pinin' 

Foh de blues to go away; • 
See de water trickle 

Down de window pane, 
Wish dat it would hurry 'long 

An' neber come again. 

Wishm* foh de rain storm 

When de drought comes roun' 
Wonder why dat sunshine keep 

A-dryin* out de ground 
Better stop dis kicking 

Doesn't help a bit; 
Kin* o' weather what you has 

Is all you's gwinter git. 



Now if all this be true; if worry's of- 
ferings are all of evil and none of good, 
what should we do about it? The answer 
is, "Condemn, outlaw, banish, kill; do 
anything that can be done to rid the land 
of man's mind of this traitor." 

How shall we do it? The first thing 
to do is to be determined to be rid of it. 
There must always be a starting point, 
and this is a good one. During our most 
recent panic a man of large business was 
in difficulty and could not see how to save 
his business. He was gloomy and de- 
spondent, when he went into an office up- 



Little Sermons for To-day 47 

on the wall of which was hanging a card 
with these words : "If everything is black, 
hold on. Don't give up. It is in the dark- 
est hour that the sun's dawning rays 
gleam." And he said, as he gritted his 
teeth, "I believe that's so," and went out 
of there with head and chest up, and the 
new determination carried him to victory. 

The determination to win; to clean out 
the mental hostelry, and make ready for 
new guests will go a long way toward the 
victory. Resolution, purpose, persist- 
ence are hard workers for whomsoever 
commands. "I will" is the master of des- 
tinies. 



"I Will" has a spirit that nothing daunts; 

Once he gets his eye on the thing he wants 
He rolls up his sleeves, and he pitches in 

With a splendid zeal that is bound to win. 

"I Will" never hesitates lest he fail — 

In his heart he's sure that he will prevail. 

Xo mountain can halt him, however high; 
There's no task so hard but he'll have a try. 

"I Will" sets his teeth when things start off 
wrong; 

He just grins, and mutters: 'This can't last 
long. 

I'll take a fresh start; and Adversity 

Will be going some if he catches me." 



48 Little Sermons for To-day 

"I Will" has a punch hid in either hand; 

He has training, strength, and a heap of 
sand; 
He swings his hard fists in the world's grim 
face, 
And he bangs away until the world gives 
place. 

"I Will" understands in his own strength lies 
The one chance he'll get at the things men 
prize. 
Discouragement, failure — nothing can chill 
The stout heart of him who declares, "I 
Will!" 

To make the determination to rid the 
life of worry does not mean that you will 
refuse to take proper forethought and use 
sufficient care to meet with intelligent ac- 
tion the tasks of the day. He would be 
foolish who would throw discretion and 
investigation to the wind, and say idioti- 
cally, "Let things take care of them- 
selves." 

But it does mean that you refuse to let 
useless, unfruitful pondering and wonder- 
ing have the time of your mind. Said the 
old Quaker, "Two things thee must not 
worry about; the things thee can help, 
and the things thee cannot." And he 
spoke wisely. 

If the thing that threatens to bring 
worry to you, or has already taken its 



Little Sermons for To-day 49 

hold, be of the things you cannot help, 
then stop the worry. God did not give 
you the universe to carry, and the im- 
possibilities are not your burdens. If 
there be nothing you can do, then let not 
the burden rest upon your mind and heart. 
The answer which a prosaic editor sent 
to a certain lady of poetic bent may have 
its lesson for us all. The lady wrote, in- 
quiring : 

"Dear Editor: What shall I do ? Each 
morn when I visit my henyard, as the 
beams of the rising sun flash upon it, I 
find two or three fowls lying upon their 
backs, their feet pointing to the empyrean 
blue and their souls wandering through 
fields Elysian. What is the matter?" 

The answer came to her by return mail. 

"Dear Madam : The principal trouble 
with your hens seems to be that they are 
dead. There isn't much that you can do, 
as they will probably remain in that con- 
dition for some time." 

If, on the other hand, the troublesome 
thoughts be concerning something you 
can remedy, and ought to remedy, get at 
it. Look the situation over carefully, ex- 
amine it from every view-point, find just 
what can be done, and what cannot be 



50 Little Sermons for To-day 

done. Then decide upon your course of 
action, and get at it. Work, dig, sweat; 
do what it demands. But once your line 
of action is decided upon, do not waste 
your energy wondering if you have made 
the right decision ; never ponder over what 
might have been. Take care of the pos- 
sibilities of the now and the to be. 

Be sure that your life has a task worth 
while ; let it be so busy really doing things 
that it will have no time to run round in 
rings. The best way to get clear of a 
harmful thought is to fill the mind with 
helpful ones. If you would keep the bit- 
ter from your heart, fill all its corners with 
the sweet. 

Now another task for him who worries 
is to do what he can to change out- 
ward circumstances that induce the un- 
lovely mental attitude. Perchance it is 
an association with the furniture of the 
home, or the home itself, or some friends, 
and these associations should be changed 
for awhile. Perhaps the source of men- 
tal attitude may be in tender grief for 
some dear ones who are waiting on the 
other shore ; and every flower they loved, 
each room they used, and the pieces of 
furniture that they touched bring to mind 
the suffering that is for those who remain 



Little Sermons for To-day 51 

on this side. Let us be sure of this, that 
the best memory of a dear one is a life of 
kindness and love to those who walk now 
the earthly way. It is a duty of every 
person whose life is losing its sweetness 
and cheer because of even so dear a thing 
as sorrow for a lost loved one, to change 
conditions. 

A good thing to do is to get away as 
much as possible from the associations 
that are most sombre. If possible get 
away from the house for awhile. If not, 
change the setting of the furniture, the po- 
sition of pictures and rugs. Get a new 
atmosphere. This will help in conquering 
any morbid influence that is too weighty 
in the life. Break the physical ties which 
bind you to the mental conditions, and 
the way is opened to the freedom to be at- 
tained when other things are done. 

Suggestion seems to some to be a weak 
word, and to others a dangerous one. It 
is both strong and safe if properly used. 
And every one has the privilege of using 
it on himself. To many it seems silly to 
try to fool one's self into an easy condi- 
tion of mind. But it is not nearly as silly 
as fooling one's self into a diseased and 
troubled condition, as many do. If you 
worry, get quiet, relax body and mind, and 



52 Little Sermons for To-day 

tell yourself it will be all right. Say to 
yourself that you will be full of peace and 
power. Do it over and over. This is 
sound psychology — that one may help 
himself by suggestion. 

And then, dwell upon the good and 
happy things. Get all the good there is 
for you. There is too much good in the 
world; too much blue in the sky, and 
brightness in the sunlight; the men and 
women are too full of goodness, for us to 
go through the world dwelling with the 
ugly things. Many folks seem to run from 
the bright things of life. They are like a 
tramp who applied to a lady for work, 
and when she told him she had a cord of 
wood to be cut up and she was just going 
to send for a man to do it, he replied, 
"That -so, mum? Where does he live? 
I'll go and get him." 

But we should run to the good things ; 
we should see them, and live them. If 
we think the world is all full of evil and 
blackness, the trouble may be with the 
glasses through which we look. 



Some people are a-growlin' an* a howlin' day 

an* night 
An' a-rantin' an 1 a-railin' 'cause the world ain't 

goin' right. 



Little Sermons for To-day 53 

They are weepin' o'er its sorrows an' they keep 
its woes in view, 

An* they never note the sweetness o' the roses 
drippin' dew. 

Some people in their frettin' are forgettin' bless- 
ings rare, 

They fail to breathe the fragrance that is float- 
in* on the air. 

They keep the thorn an' thistle an' the nettles 
aye in view, 

They pass the blushin' roses in their haste to 
pluck the rue. 

This world may have its failin's, but there's 
good enough for all, 

An' we may choose the sweetness or bitterness 
an' gall. 

An' if we seek the shadows, an' if we shun the 
light, 

'Tis we, an' not the world, friends, that ain't 
a-goin' right. 



These are all sane, scientific means one 
may use to conquer a powerful enemy of 
the peace of mankind. There remains the 
most potent of the remedies to be men- 
tioned. That which can do most to rid 
the life of worry, and fill it with peace, 
is a firm, trustful, religious faith. A faith 
that will not let go, that trusts when it 
does not see, and calmly rests in its strong 
belief, will conquer many of the ills that 
flesh is heir to. 

Hear the words of the psychologist, 



54 Little Sermons for To-day 

William James, who speaks from the sci- 
entific standpoint: "Of course the sover- 
eign cure for worry is religious faith. The 
turbulent billows of the fretful surface 
leave the deep parts of the ocean undis- 
turbed, and to him who has hold on vaster 
and more permanent realities the hourly- 
vicissitudes of his personal destiny seem 
relatively insignificant things. The really 
religious person is accordingly unshak- 
able and full of equanimity, and calmly 
ready for any duty that the day may 
bring forth." 

This kind of test would give a low score 
to the faith of some of us ; but it tells what 
the faith should be. Oh, ior a faith that 
is worthy of the name ! Who can believe 
truly, and then let the life doubt that in 
which he believes? O ye of little faith! 
Let him who has faith open the heart in 
prayer for the needed things — for peace, 
for quiet, for power — and then trust. Just 
lean upon the arms of Jesus, then leave 
all to Him. 

It is the Creator of the world that rules 
it, and it will run according to His pur- 
pose. It is the Father of us who guides 
our lives, and they will be cared for ac- 
cording to His love. We will, then, trust 
through all the way. In the hour of un- 



Little Sermons for To-day 55 

certainty we will believe with Browning 
that, "The best of life is yet to come; the 
last for which the first was made. Our 
times are in His hand, who says, 'A whole 
I planned ; youth sees but half/ " 

Faith and peace which are of the fruits 
of religion are incompatible with worry, 
and when they fill the heart, no room is 
for rent or occupancy by worry. Here, 
as in many another place, faith is the vic- 
tory. Worry cannot harm the life that 
yields itself to God, knows His love en- 
compasses it, and lets His will be done. 

"I know not where His islands lift their frond- 

ed palms in air, 
I only know I cannot drift beyond His love 

and care." 



56 Little Sermons for To-day 



MAKING GOOD IN A PINCH 

. Life is a struggle, and it is the emerg- 
encies that bring out real differences in 
men. Roosevelt compared life to a foot- 
ball game, and said, "Hit the line hard." 
Like life again, in every football game 
where there is a real struggle the test 
comes in the pinch. The winning team is 
not the one that can gain five yards on 
the first down, but the one that can make 
good on the fourth down with one yard 
to go. On Thanksgiving Day I witnessed 
a game between two splendidly matched 
teams. My favorite, with three minutes 
to play, and two points behind their op- 
ponents, swept magnificently down the 
field to the enemy's five-yard line. The 
supreme test of the tense two hours came 
when the twenty-two men lined up for 
those final plunges. And when they piled 
up into the unmoving mountain of strain- 
ing flesh we knew that the weight and 
muscles of the enemy had made good in 
the pinch. 

Pinches and emergencies bring out the 
real qualities of life and character. Men 
grind along day after day in the course of 



Little Sermons for To-day 57 

employment. None advance over the 
others, and the studious, earnest work- 
man questions whether his honesty and 
industry are worth while. But one day 
an emergency arises — the men are thrown 
suddenly on their own resources in a sit- 
uation demanding knowledge, skill, pow- 
er, decision. With the manhood and abil- 
ity he has developed, the earnest plodder 
rises to the occasion and masters the sud- 
den problem. Then he has passed his fel- 
low-workers, and they call it fortune, be- 
wailing their own hard luck. 

There was a soul-baring time out upon 
the icy Atlantic when the blow of the ice- 
berg made the giant Titanic tremble from 
bow to stern. Men ran to and fro like 
mad. Guards had to stand over some with 
revolvers, to prevent them from crushing 
women and children. Other men stood 
back calmly, or guided weaker ones to 
places of safety, while they waited for 
the swoop of the ship that would send 
them into the sea. The emergency brought 
out the finer points of character. Of men 
who looked alike ordinarily, some behaved 
like devils, and some acquitted them- 
selves like gods. 

All of us desire to show true colors 
when a pinch pulls off the robes of con- 



58 Little Sermons for To-day 

vention and pretense. But we remember 
that it is not in the moment of struggle 
that power is developed. That is done 
long before in the common, dreary, every- 
day grind of life. Victories may be won 
in an hour; they are prepared for only in 
a life-time. 

The Christian will use the power of God 
in the stresses of life. When threatened 
by sickness, failure, sin, he will abide in 
the Most High. But he cannot do it un- 
less through the common days he has kept 
in touch with God. Many cry, "Lord, 
Lord," unavailingly because they have 
forgotten how to talk with Him. But 
when the storm breaks, He never fails 
those who have walked with him in the 
sun and shadow of the quiet days. 



Little Sermons for To-day 59 



GOD IN BUSINESS 

To some, this phrase will seem to ex- 
press a contradiction, to others, an anom- 
aly. They will think, either that the mes- 
sage of the presence of God, while applic- 
ble, is impossible of realization in the 
hard, grinding struggle of twentieth cen- 
tury industrial and commercial life, or 
that only a fantastic imagination can sug- 
gest any relation between the two. 

"I cannot understand/' says one, "how 
religion can have any connection with the 
exhausting, exasperating work of my of- 
fice. Business is business. And if religion 
is religion it belongs in the atmosphere of 
the service and the sanctuary." 

Happily we are growing beyond this 
conception of religion. We have remem- 
bered that the religion of the Holy-Day 
cannot be divorced from the life of the 
holiday and the work-day. A man may 
not pass the plate to receive the offerings 
of his fellows on Sunday, and filch from 
their pockets on Monday. We have even 
gone so far in the recognition of the rights 
of morality and religion in the business 



60 Little Sermons for To-day 

world that the Department of Weights 
and Measures of the progressive State of 
California has this for its slogan: "Hon- 
esty in business should be a principle, not 
a policy." Let him who says religion has 
no place in modern business life be re- 
minded that such an assertion relegates 
him from modern ranks to a prominent 
position among those antiquated minds 
who have not yet caught up with the 
modern spirit- 
Religion, law and society have brought 
the message of religious principles to bus- 
iness. Let me bring to the business man 
an offering of power that will not only 
make possible the application of these 
principles, but will add joy and strength 
to him who uses it. 

It is not the useful work and rush of 
modern life that kills, but the needless 
doubt, worry and dissatisfaction. If the 
twentieth century man can connect with 
the power of God for strength and peace 
in his business, he will do more work and 
better work than he ever did before, and 
there will be more happiness wherever 
he is. 

Ask what made possible the calm 
strength of the Father of our Country, 



Little Sermons for To-day 61 

and his equally calm self-surrender for 
the good of that country. Then find your 
answer as you see George Washington up- 
on his knees at Valley Forge in the dark- 
est hour of the Revolution. Seek in the 
next century the source of power of the 
country's martyred saviour, and find it in 
the earnest, constant prayer-life of Abra- 
ham Lincoln. To these men whom the 
world justly calls great God's peace was 
real and sustaining. The secret is God. 

Let the man whose burdens are too 
heavy, whose work or worry is killing 
him, who is despondent, morose, irritable, 
invite God's presence — in the office, the 
store, the factory, the street — and he will 
find it an inspiration to his heart, a light 
to his mind, and a staff to his strength. 



62 Little Sermons for To-day 



GIT TO LAFFIN'. 

When you git an ornery thump 

Go to laffin\ 
When you hit a stubborn stump 

Git to laffin'. 
'Taint no use to grouch and cry 
Like you thought you'z gona die. 
Hit hard; don't stop to sigh; 

Start to laffin'. 

When your money slips away 

Git to laffin'. 
When you see your poorest da} 

Keep a laffin'. 
If your dreams caint allers be, 
Remember laffin's allers free. 
Wade right in to what you see, 

An' keep on laffin'. 

When you think that you're all in, 

Git to laffin'. 
Bein' down and out sure ain't no sin. 

Go to laffin'. 
Meet every job with lifted chin, 
Shout in the pessimistic din. 
When you feel like cryin', grin, 

An' keep on laffin'. 



Little Sermons for To-day 63 



A UNIVERSE WITHOUT GOD 

We live in the sort of world we choose. 
We have the choice of living in a Godless 
universe, or dwelling where he makes the 
springs of life flow sweet and pure. 

From the worlds of some people God is 
driven out. They exile him because they 
wish to acknowledge no authority, or be- 
cause they let doubt vanquish faith, or 
for selfishness, laziness, pride or hate. 
And what have they left? What sort of 
world is theirs? 

Without God existence itself is an en- 
igma. Whence came the world? Why 
do we live anyway? Why did not the 
world stop in its development before man 
was produced? Without God, we trace 
life and the world back toward their source 
as far as we can and come to — what? 
Matter, blind force, some sort of imagin- 
ary unthinking element of law. Then we 
trust this blind, unthinking, unfeeling 
thing, this dark, cold monster, without 
mind or heart, to go forth and make a 
world where beauty and fullness shall 



64 Little Sermons for To-day 

dwell in the land, where birds and moth- 
ers and children shall sing, where men 
shall love and build and grow, where 
visions of snowy purity shall flash across 
human souls and instill aspirations 
worthy of God himself. As well ask an 
alligator, pulling himself out of his slimy 
bed, to come into your drawing-room and 
teach your children to play the piano. 

There is no meaning to life without 
God. It is not worth the burning of its 
candle. We carry loads, we face sorrow, 
we walk in uncertainty. Just as we have 
learned to know father and mother and to 
love them as they deserve, they slip from 
us, and the only answer to our cries of 
anguish is the dull thud of the sod as the 
words are said, "Ashes to ashes, dust to 
dust." Our friends tear loose from the 
grips of our hearts in the same way. And 
we, too, are headed toward the meaning- 
less grave. After all our struggle, aspira- 
tion and growth, only to return to the 
earth as food for the worms. What a 
a lot ! Poor humanity ! Better there had 
never been life! Better we had never 
lived or loved or dreamed! 

No, life was not given by an unthink- 
ing, unplanning force. Unless it came 
from God, who gave us the upward glance 



Little Sermons for To-day 65 

that we might be true to the best, it was 
inflicted upon us by some evil, calculating 
power. Giving us minds and hearts, it 
holds temptingly before us the baits of 
love and hope and growth, only in the end 
to tear them all away, and as we reach 
out toward heaven, for which it gave us 
eyes, to murder our souls. You take your 
choice. Either the light of God's love 
shines warmly across life, or you feel the 
poisonous breath of a dragon, blighting 
every flower of hope that dares to lift its 
weary head. 

And with God? Why, with God per- 
plexities dissolve into meaning. The best 
is best after all. Life's values are im- 
measurably increased by projection into 
eternity. And God's presence is visited 
upon us in peace and power. Like barren 
Egypt bounding into plenty at the flow- 
ing of the replenishing Nile, life springs 
into beauty and power at the coming of 
God. 



66 Little Sermons for To-day 



THE SECRET OF POWER 

One of the new things which Jesus 
brought to the world was the power by 
which he sought to do things. His new 
commandment was, "Love." This was 
the power by which he proposed to con- 
quer, and it was a new weapon. Men 
had heard of prayer and worship as the 
way to reach God and to touch the world. 
They knew of the place of the ritual in 
their religious life. Prophets had shouted 
over the land the cry of reform, and ex- 
pected results. The waving banner of the 
battle-line, the blare of the bugle and the 
shout of conflict were familiar to men. 
And by all these means they knew that 
the world had tried to obtain the things 
which it desired. 

But here was something new. A man 
stood in their midst prophesying a king- 
dom that should reach around the world. 
He proclaimed that every knee would bow 
to him, and all empires own his sway. 

But where is his army? What is his 
battle-sign? How will he win such glory 
and power in this world of mighty things ? 



Little Sermons for To-day 67 

Mark you now, he speaks to answer. In 
the face of so great a task; in the midst 
of such mighty powers; facing so many 
foes; this man quietly announces that he 
will win his empire by force of love. 

And the world would not believe ! 

In twenty centuries the gentle power 
of love has carried his ensign around the 
world, and yet "we will not believe. So- 
ciety forgets love to use force upon its 
offenders. We dare not trust the power 
of love, but make ready our gunboats and 
store away balls and powder. We stand 
to-day bewildered, unable to choose be- 
tween the power of brute force and the 
power of love. May the world-reaching 
effects of others' mistaken choices give us 
guidance ! 

Europe has chosen brute force, and like 
a brute she wallows to-day in ill-spent 
blood. Still we hesitate. This is not a 
plea for disarmament upon the part of a 
single nation, but it is a clarion call that 
trust in guns and battle can lead only to 
bloody misery. 

Love may lift the whip, and love may 
cry, "Woe !" But love cannot trust in the 
instruments of hate. Forget not that love 
is more than a motto or a course of con- 



68 Little Sermons for To-day 

duct. Love is a vital, living, conquering 
force. It heals disease, subdues enemies, 
makes progress. We have come to the 
century of our Lord when nations' great- 
est powers are moral. We must center 
where Christ centered, and win our way 
by love, by being brotherly to all nations, 
by standing for national character. 

Paul signed the death-warrant of slav- 
ery by writing the names of slaves in the 
record of the Christian Church. Jesus 
broke the power of caste when he made 
brothers of twelve different kinds of men. 
The man who loves one woman supreme- 
ly is the only man fit to protect woman- 
hood. He who loves a home is the only 
one we can trust to defend the nation's 
firesides. The church which has love with- 
in itself is the only church that can do 
the work of God. 

Love is the force that will conquer the 
world. Love, warm within our throbbing 
hearts, and pulsating through our national 
life, will give to time its noblest nation, 
and to the unsettled world a leader who 
can point the way to abiding peace. 



Little Sermons for To-day 69 



THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST 

It is not always the fit that survive, but 
those that are fit TO survive. Jesus said 
the way to find and save your life is to 
give it away. The eflfort should be not to 
live, but to be fit to live. Not many have 
believed him, and we have gone on striv- 
ing to survive, forgetting to estimate our 
fitness. 

Nations have not believed him. They 
have said that whoever would save his 
life must be careful of his own interests. 
He must hug tight his privileges. He 
must keep his grip on power. 

Now who is right? Look to Europe and 
see. There they have been keen in com- 
petition. Every nation has saved its po- 
sition, its money, its pride. And to what 
end? That it might be as Jesus said, 
"Whosoever will save his life shall lose 
it!" 

And America? Our choice is before us. 
We must choose to be selfish or helpful. 
It cannot be that the whole world bleed 
and we sit in comfortable peace. We can- 
not imagine that out of the worlds misery 



70 Little Sermons for To-day 

America can reap money and prosperity, 
and hold it to a selfish heart. 

We too must be spent And unless we 
spend our money and ourselves now for 
the cause of humanity, we will some time 
spill blood on the battle-field. Unless 
America gives her life she, too, will lose it. 
The fitness that will save us is the heart 
and will to be worth saving. Unless we 
demonstrate our worthiness to survive as 
the greatest nation, we will find that in 
the struggle for existence no selfish grasp- 
ing can avail. 

Peoples who do not fight for the help 
of others and for the advancement of 
righteousness eventually fight for their 
self-preservation. America, pure and giv- 
ing herself to humanitarian activities, will 
never be caught in the maelstrom of 
greedy, bloody war. But America, rotten 
and indolent, will some time fight to the 
spilling of her degenerate blood. Let us 
hear the battle-cry of peace, and lift up 
the banner of righteous warfare. Let us 
not be too selfish or lazy or self-satisfied 
to enter in. Let America be the battle- 
ground where injustice, cruelty, legalized 
sin, intolerance, and all their evil allies, 
vanquished by the onslaught of a patri- 
otic people, shall crawl away to die. 



Little Sermons for To-day 71 

This is our glorious hour. Not like 
ghouls to lick our lips over the bloody 
prosperity that may be ours, Rather, like 
men to say that we too are capable of the 
great sacrifice. But it will not be in the 
name of battle and blood ; not for slaugh- 
ter and misery. It will be for service and 
love; for man and God. And if we thus 
give our national life, from the horrors of 
war, into which selfishness would some- 
time plunge us, we shall be saved. 

There are many varied opinions con- 
cerning the meaning of the vast world- 
movements of this day. Some believe in 
preparedness; others demand disarma- 
ment. Some look for the triumph of 
Jesus' Gospel of Love; others foresee the 
failure of this dispensation in the catas- 
trophe before the millenium. There are 
those who prophesy universal peace, and 
their opposites who sense the coming of 
world war. 

But all are agreed upon this one thing : 
These days are laden with tremendous 
significance to the material and spiritual 
welfare of humanity. Nobody doubts that 
out of to-day's clouded uncertainty will 
spring some immeasurable change in 
world-life. 



72 Little Sermons for To-day 

What will the change be? Only 
America can determine. With Europe 
weak and bleeding, and Asia pouring, 
molten soft, into the mould of its most 
significant generation, the light of Ameri- 
ca's spirit will give color to the civiliza- 
tion of the world. The world needs 
America to-day. It needs her material 
resources, her leadership in industry, com- 
merce, education, general advancement. 
But more than all, this century needs 
America in spirit. America must save 
the nations, as herself, by a spirit of 
brotherhood and love. This is the most 
vital point in a cross-section of the life- 
processes of the hour, and no institution 
is so near it as the Church of Jesus Christ, 
proclaiming and demanding a Christian 
America. 



Little Sermons for To-day 73 



THE UNSEEN BATTLE LINE 

The crashing roar of the war of the world 

Has driven the nations mad. 
Now here, now there, in the gory whirl 

Victorious blood makes glad. 

Exiled in her far-off sad retreat, 

Under frightful ban, 
•Cowers there on the anxious seat 
The guardian angel of man. 

"Which wins?" she cries in quiv'ring notes, 
Groaning from the deadly work. 

And answer floats from battle-throats, 
"Teuton!" or "Saxon!" or "Turk!" 

"No! No! Not that I fain would learn, 

Not by flag or race 'tis told. 
Only by the fires in the heart that burn, 

To make or mar the soul. 

"Oh, tell, if the battle goes to hate 
And blood and war and hell, 

While madness storms the passion gate 
Where hope and goodness dwell! 

"Spirits war behind the deed. 

The fight for man's control 
Is hating, monstrous self and greed 

'Gainst home and love and soul. 

"Mothers and childhod — all good of life — 

Range now in battle-line. 
They come victorious from this strife, 

Or ever leave mankind. 

"Free your hearts of the black'ning sin! 

Be true in the passing fray! 
Till pity, love and peace come in 

To bring the better day!" 



74 Little Sermons for To-day 



THE CHURCH AND THE SOCIAL 
EVIL 

When Jesus Christ confounded the 
hypocrites by saying to them, "Let him 
that is without sin among you cast the 
first stone," and startled the world by 
saying to her of the scarlet, "Go, and sin 
no more," He gave His church warrant 
to deal with this great problem of sin and 
shame and sorrow. Indeed, the church 
has an interest in every condition which 
affects the morals of the individual, the 
purity of society, the sanctity of the home. 
These are the things for which the church 
stands, the things human for whose ex- 
istence its energies must be spent, and it 
is directly interested in opposing what- 
ever tends to destroy them. 

Though the mention of this vice, and 
of everything connected with it, has been 
avoided by the church, as by all of soci- 
ety, it has not been because of lack of 
interest. We have believed in purity, 
have advocated it, but have simply kept 
at long distance from an avoided subject, 
and that mayhap wisely. 

From some sources the blows of criti- 



Little Sermons for To-day 75 

cism fall heavily upon people and min- 
isters for failure to solve this problem. 
There are many critics of the clergy who 
think that a man may preach a series of 
sermons, and within a season change the 
heritage of his denomination and the 
thought of his congregation. They forget 
that the minister deals with men and 
women, inside and outside of the church, 
with deep-set ideas and opinions, — just as 
the critic is so filled with his own that he 
cannot appreciate any other position. 

But the fundamental point of misunder- 
standing of those who condemn the church 
is the fact that they have not appreciated 
the church's high aim for building char- 
acter, and its reliance upon the happy, 
holy, religious life as the greatest pre- 
ventive of immorality. And has it not 
been justified? Some months ago, a lead- 
ing magazine printed a statement of an 
Eastern Judge, who startled even the 
church by proving that the ranks of the 
criminal class find practically no recruits 
from the active church members. True! 
True ! And rare are the instances when 
the studying and teaching, and the seek- 
ing, of the life of the Nazarene have not 
kept the feet from the wayward path. 
The life that is full of positive goodness, 



76 Little Sermons for To-day 

that is moved by the spirit of service and 
not selfishness, that strives always for 
the highest character, has a set of soul 
strong enough to determine the way it 
shall go, and it is not wafted by the winds 
of circumstance far from its course. 

So the church has felt that it was deal- 
ing with the social evil, and every evil, 
most effectually when it gave attention 
to the building and setting of character, 
and to instilling into institutions the 
purity of the Master's teachings. And 
has it not done wonderful things! I 
shudder to think what this civilization 
might be without the continuous, labori- 
ous, consecrated effort in Sunday School 
and church and other Christian activities 
to make the Christian ideal of purity, holi- 
ness and happiness the world's ideal and 
aim. 

But ignorance, misunderstanding, in- 
capability of adjusting principle to in- 
stance, disregard of Christian teachings 
by those who oppress and shame ; all these 
things creep in to leave their blemish, and 
the church of this age is awaking to an 
increased appreciation of its vast mission 
in dealing directly with humanity's great 
problems. It is this new realization that 
has sent the Church of Christ into politics, 






Little Sermons for To-day 77 

there to insist upon the principles of 
Christian ethics in the relation of gov- 
ernment to individual, and in the lives of 
the people's servants. This new awaken- 
ing has put the Social Service Secretaries 
of the church into the field, representing 
the church organized to fight down in- 
dustrial injustice and to extend the spirit 
and practice of brotherhood so as to in- 
clude in reality all men. It is again this 
new spirit that has given to ministers and 
Christian workers a vision of a new hope 
— a solution of the problem of the social 
evil — and has set them to work to find 
the way. We are convinced that this 
menace causes too much sorrow, that it 
is too dangerous, to be of those things 
which we may not touch. The church has 
found itself ever arrayed against every 
form of vice and degradation, but in this 
generation she finds herself possessed of a 
new spirit of attack, a fresh inspiration 
of activity, and a fuller wisdom which 
furnishes the many ways of proceedure. 

The overwhelming conviction forced 
upon me is that the most vital part in the 
struggle of humanity for purity is to be 
played by the Christian church. The task 
is not one for the prosecutor's office 
primarily; nor for legislative halls; it 



78 Little Sermons for To-day 

concerns not principally the economic 
world ; not even in the school is the point 
of attack of greatest value. The solution 
must come from an institution which can 
deal sanely with the phases legislative, 
economic and educational; but which re- 
members that this is fundamentally a 
moral question, and which has something 
positive to offer the world as a hope for 
its solution. 

Most prominent in the attiude of the 
church is the self-evident fact that it can- 
not accept the idea that this is a necessary 
evil. Having heard the gospel of the com- 
ing kingdom; having as its light the life 
of Him who was perfect man; knowing 
to-day the countless lives of spotless 
purity; it cannot be brought to believe 
that anything low and vile in humanity 
is a necessity. The church with all its 
doctrine of sin believes that sin is not 
necessary. Here it is, in almost over- 
whelming strength, but there is a power 
which will overcome it. We will not be- 
lieve that that which does most to pollute 
society, which undermines the morality of 
individuals, that this thing so laden with 
misery and sin, is among the eternal. So 
he who comes with his first word the 
statement that this is with us always can- 



Little Sermons for To-day 79 

not hope to find much sympathy from 
the unconquerable optimism of Jesus 
Christ and his followers. There is a solu- 
tion of the problem. It may be, nay it 
must be, that it will not come in its full- 
ness until the problem of life and hu- 
manity has been solved by man reaching 
up to God, and the kingdom of love and 
service and brotherhood is nearer than 
now; but somehow it must come. 

There are many who say that the church 
and its ministers know nothing of the 
scientific side of the problem, and they 
say that the church's unalterable opposi- 
tion to segregation and protection comes 
from this fact. We. feel impelled to reply 
to him who boasts of his scientific spirit 
that he has largely lost sight of the most 
important phase of the question — the 
moral basis from which it must be ap- 
proached. We can hardly believe that 
science without moral sense is better than 
the moral spirit without scientific knowl- 
edge. Some things are writ deeply on 
the fabric of man's heart, and that soul 
instinctively turns toward the right. 

Be that as it may, the church could 
not be consistent and be favorable to 
regulations which recognize the greatest 
vice of man as legitimate business, and 



80 Little Sermons for To-day 

place it under peculiar protection of the 
law. We are convinced that nothing is 
gained by such proceedure, in safety 
either physical or moral, and we are un- 
alterably sure that much is lost whenever 
we compromise and degrade society by 
making such an institution a legitimate 
and protected part of its activities. 

We have seen, says the church of to- 
day, that a prolific source of the evil under 
consideration is the unjust industrial and 
economic condition, and we have thrown 
ourselves into the struggle to right it. 
Every measure and method which has as 
its aim the bettering of these conditions, 
the lifting of him who is oppressed, and 
the opening of the door to full life to men 
and women and children everywhere, finds 
as its strongest non-partisan ally the 
church in action. But thorough study 
convinces that this is not the greatest 
cause of the prevalence of the vice. 

Of the white slave traffic the same may 
be said. It exists in all its pictured 
horror. But the records of the women 
concerned show that it is not of major 
importance in the causes. To be sure the 
most horrible form in which we know this 
thing is the story of absolute, uncom- 
promising innocence plunged into degra- 



Little Sermons for To-day 81 

dation ; and the spirit of the church is with 
every attempt to throttle the diabolical 
business. But it believes we must go 
deeper than that to find the fundamental 
cause of the existence of the social evil. 

Then comes some one with his theory 
that the cause of all is the perversity of 
the women who fall. They tell us that 
reform is impossible because there is in 
the character an unchangeable bias toward 
this sort of life. The burden upon the 
woman again! Now we do not doubt — 
it seems impossible that it should be 
otherwise — that this kind of life of sin and 
depravity should so eat out the character 
as to leave nothing but hollow emptiness. 
We know, too, that many find their way 
here because of perverse tendencies, and 
some because of rejoicing in the life which 
it affords. We are aware also that many 
taken out find their way back. But once 
more the church is unwilling to accept 
the dictum, "impossible." Reform may 
be impossible, but the church does not 
know nearly so much about reform as it 
does about regeneration, and regeneration 
is not impossible. "Go, and sin no more," 
does not mean that there is no hope for 
the fallen. The church has to offer what 
none else can offer to her who is in the 
depths : 



82 Little Sermons for To-day 

"There is a fountain filled with blood 
Drawn from Immanuel's veins, 

And sinners plunged beneath that flood 
Lose all their guilty stains." 

And she who is friendless and ruined 
will find in the new spirit of the church 
the uplifting hand of real fraternity. 
Hatred of sin and love of sinner is ever 
the beauty of our Christ, and must be the 
spirit of His church. To those who have 
gone low, the church says, "Come up ;" to 
lives shrouded in blackness, the church 
brings a ray of light; to those who have 
no hope it says that all may be gained in 
the glory of Jesus Christ. The door swings 
open wide. 

But reform does not assuage the action 
of causes. What, then, are the causes 
which seem to be most fundamental 
among the many? There seem to be two 
or three deep-set sources of evil against 
which the church can turn a broadside 
directly. Of only one of them can it be 
be said that the church of the past has 
neglected it. That is the dangerous source 
of disaster — ignorance. Ignorance of con- 
ditions which exist, ignorance of bodily 
functions, ignorance of the life which the 
highest standard of purity demands of 
the individual. Pitifully comes the cry 



Little Sermons for To-day 83 

from a saddened soul, "Oh, if I had only- 
known !" Somebody's is the responsibility 
if the erring did not know that which 
they should have known, and Christian 
workers everywhere are setting them- 
selves the task of giving to those who 
come under their care proper knowledge 
and guidance. 

This does not mean that we look with 
favor upon the cheap, melodramatic, mis- 
leading plays, films and stories which have 
been made possible by an aroused con- 
science. For the most part these produc- 
tions are merely commercial schemes, 
sensing the new interest in social prob- 
lems and prostituting this concern for 
mercenary purposes. They are not reli- 
able, generally not helpful. They deal 
with that phase of the situation which 
lends itself most easily to dramatic and 
heart-rending presentation, hardly ever 
conveying knowledge which gives any aid 
in solving the problem. 

While information as to dangerous 
social conditions and concerning bodily 
processes is necessary, it is not the funda- 
mental element of combative education. 
That basic part is a knowledge of the 
purity of life and thought demanded by 
the highest standards. Our youth know 



84 Little Sermons for To-day 

too much about the last fatal step of im- 
purity; we are now telling them at least 
enough about themselves ; but how many- 
children have instilled into them the de- 
sire for perfect purity? What numbers 
there are who, while dodging the coarser 
sins, step lightly on the way to destruc- 
tion, because we have not let them know 
that every violation of purity of thought 
and deed is wrong. 

Another virulent cause of the social evil 
is the double standard of morals. This is 
the cancer of immorality which eats its 
way surely to the heart of society. We 
know too well the punishment visited 
upon the girl who offends, while the more 
guilty man continues gaily on his es- 
capades, and counts them experiences to 
gloat over. It is only a few hours in the 
life of many a young man from the brothel 
to the parlor of his lady friends. As long 
as this systemic disease exists society can- 
not cure itself by treating symptoms. So 
long as honored married men can make 
approaches to young ladies ; while we ex- 
pect a man to make certain advances 
which a girl must repulse; so long as 
g-u-i-1-t spells guilt for one party and not 
for the other; just so long will the social- 
ly developed lax morals of a sex vent 



Little Sermons for To-day 85 

themselves in practices inimical to society. 
One or two things is true : Either there 
should be one code of morals for the sexes, 
or our society is organized on the wrong 
basis. If society is properly organized, if 
the Creator is wise and beneficent when 
He creates us male and female, each for 
each, then the only logical principle is 
the single standard which gives life for 
life, character for character, purity for 
purity. 

The church recognizes no sex in moral- 
ity. If there be one place where equal 
opprobrium falls upon both for known 
offenses, that place is the Christian 
church. And there to both is held out 
the tender hand of forgiveness. The stir- 
ring demands of Jesus come to man and 
woman alike, and one of the tasks of the 
church of to-day is to create in manhood 
a Christlike passion for purity. Unto this 
end have we lifted up our voices and en- 
tered the struggle. Some men's ideas must 
be changed; society must alter its direc- 
tion; but the end must come — that man 
shall demand of woman the spotless 
purity of his ideals, and shall place him- 
self beside her in her highest stand. 

The other potent cause which the 
church can combat is the lack of ideals of 



86 Little Sermons for To-day 

purity, and the willingness to compromise 
with impurity when the danger is small. 
Since Christ set the ideal by saying, 
"Blessed are the pure in heart," and Paul 
gave us the word, "Whatsoever things are 
true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good 
report, think on these things," the church 
has fought for the ideal of purity in the 
heart. 

With rare exceptions the stories of those 
who have entered the life of the pariah 
show gradual sauntering down the broad 
and easy way. Even in cases where girls 
have been led by slavers, not often are 
they snatched at one move from their in- 
nocence; but the process involves a series 
of easy steps, which go smoothly until 
the one step which society unequivocally 
condemns brings sorrow and shame. 

The solution is an ideal of purity for 
individuals and society. A see not, say 
not, think not of that which is impure ; a 
purity which is not content merely to 
steer clear of the rock of condemnation, 
but has an upward, forward impulse of 
heart. This the church preaches with the 
words of Christ Jesus as no other insti- 
tution can. Purity of act, purity of mind, 
purity of heart; this is the purity which 
conquers, and is the antidote for the 



Little Sermons for To-day 87 

poison which gives us the dread social 
disease. 

This is where the church does the great- 
est work in combatting the evils of the 
day. Not neglecting to fight the organized 
traffic in women, never failing to seek to 
remedy economic conditions, trying to im- 
part the knowledge necessary for protec- 
tion, we dig deeper and build for higher. 
Jesus Christ challenged and staggered 
humanity with his ideals of strength and 
purity. His challenge the church takes 
up for itself and passes on to society. Far 
in advance shall we go; higher must in- 
dividual standards raise; and purer need 
the ideals of society to become. The 
church says this, not alone because of 
the need of the hour, not solely because 
we see about the drift of moral wreck- 
age, but because from the beginning of 
its existence it has the command of its 
Leader, and the upholding of the banner 
of purity and righteousness was com- 
mitted to its hands. 

The church is awake. If any have 
thought that she has neglected some of 
the struggles tearing at the heart of man 
let him be at peace. The church has not 
forgotten that her chief end is regenera- 
tion in the name of Jesus Christ, and she 



88 Little Sermons for To-day 

can never take her emphasis from that 
one thing. Following that, though, she 
cannot read the utterances of her Master 
without being filled with a zeal for their 
spread through all of society ; she cannot 
dream of the kingdom of brotherhood and 
love without going out to make way for 
it; she cannot remember the life of the 
lowly one without, through the inspira- 
tion of his example, plunging into every 
phase of life to bring relief and uplift 
and happiness and holiness. 

So the church is in action. She has in- 
vaded new territory; she has made un- 
accustomed challenges and demands; she 
is armed for fresh conflicts in the name of 
her Leader. Wonderful visions of service 
have opened before her as the strength of 
activity is renewed, adding richer glories 
to the name of Him whom she delights to 
honor. 

But the consciousness abides that all 
the time her aim has been true in going 
to the unrighteousness of man for the 
fundamental cause of wrong and unhappi- 
ness. With all the minor methods she 
may marshall at her command, she still 
clings to the holy, positive, happy, religi- 
ous life as the surest antidote for immoral- 
ity of every kind, and to the social teach- 



Little Sermons for To-day 89 

ings of Jesus as the only corrective for 
unwholesome conditions. The life fired 
with Christian zeal, having for its chief 
aim honor to God and service to man is 
the most potent contribution to the cause 
of purity, and its reach is unbounded. 
So in His name we work against all odds, 
while the sun of life shines, looking in 
faith to that time when the little seed shall 
become the strong tree of spreading 
branches. 



90 Little Sermons for To-day 



GREAT MEASURES FOR 
GREAT NEEDS 

Your remedy must be commensurate 
with your disease. Soothing-syrup will 
not kill snake-bites. You cannot cure 
diphtheria with a gargle. Medicine alone 
will not take away tuberculosis. 

The monstrous war of the world did 
not give way to the urging of neutrals, 
nor to the clamoring of enthusiasts. There 
can be no end of war in the world until 
there is the essence of peace in human 
hearts. As men are, so is man. 

War and social injustice and industrial 
inequality and political corruption, deep- 
set diseases of the social system, cannot 
be cured by the salve of the optimist, the 
friction of the pessimist, nor the skin- 
treatment of reformers. One of the en- 
thusiasts who went to Europe to stop the 
war with a plan came back with this con- 
fession, "I have learned the things I knew 
very well before. * * * Only I have 
learned them better. I have learned them 
in disappointment and pain, in humilia- 
tion and defeat and the battlement of 



Little Sermons for To-day 91 

great endeavor. And the lesson abides. 
I have learned that there is no short cut 
to the millennium. * * * I have learned 
that a good movement must be steeped in 
prayer and saturated with devotion, that 
the peace propaganda must be baptized 
into Christ. * * * You cannot buy peace. 
A multi-millionaire cannot buy peace. He 
cannot with all his wealth buy the 'fruits 
of the spirit/ " The only remedy is a new 
humanity and the only means is Jesus 
the Christ. 

Human ills may not be reached by easy 
methods. Good resolutions make plausi- 
ble the way to Hell. His own boot- 
straps never yet lifted the straining fooL 
Man's ills result from sin. Only God can 
conquer sin. That is why Jesus, and he 
alone, will cure the diseases of humanity, 
and meet all its needs. 



92 Little Sermons for To-day 



THE HELMSMAN 

The man at the helm is the force which 
gives guidance to the ship. Great engines, 
twin screws, twenty knots an hour, drive 
only to destruction unless the man at the 
helm be on duty. No one could find fault 
with the Titanic. She rode the seas like 
a queen secure upon a throne. But the 
pilot forgot his duty, or his vision was 
not as keen as the danger demanded. 

This magnificent civilization of ours 
glories in its power and speed. Nowhere 
in annals of history is written story like 
to-day's making. The past is a child to 
our power, a snail to our pace. 

And individuals are seeking to embody 
within themselves these age-characteris- 
tics. The school-boy cannot be content to 
wait for wisdom before entering business 
or profession ; the fond parent must send 
her daughter into society before she is 
through with dolls. To exercise power, 
and to do it now, is a passion with us. 

Now our grave danger is that of the 
Titanic— lest we forget that power, glory, 
speed, success, unless rightly directed, are 



Little Sermons for To-day 93 

but engines of destruction. Witness the 
bloody glory of Europe's material 
progress to-day — condemned as a curse 
by the common voice of man. The power 
is there, the attainment. But the helms- 
man guided wrongly. 

The man at the helm in an individual's 
life is the motive that dwells within him 
— the spirit of his actions. It is the rea- 
son for all his movements, and it will 
send him to the natural result of its direc- 
tion, as surely as the Titanic's rudder sent 
her crashing into the iceberg. 

Oh how we need to learn that what 
comes out of the heart purifies or defiles 
a man ! Let a man pile up the biggest bil- 
lion of fortune in America — if his heart 
and aim be selfish he is miserable and 
selfish still. Put upon the hypocrite the 
most solemn cloak of religion and pro- 
fession — within he is as rotten as dead 
men's bones. Set any ship of life at sea 
with a wrong motive at the helm, and its 
eternal port will be named failure. 

What helmsman is worthy of a position 
at the steering-wheel of a life? Is it 
greed? The beasts may surpass him. Is 
it power? He will never know as much 
as the King of the Forest. Is it glory? 



94 Little Sermons for To-day 

It fadeth like the mist. Is it love? Yea, 
that is the greatest thing in the world. 

Damned is the power which drives to 
destruction because love is not at the 
helm. Cursed is the speed which plunges 
upon the rocks because service is not the 
goal. Whatever may be the profession, 
or business, or station, the ship of life is 
not worthy to sail the seas unless it put 
out with a good pilot. And there is no 
helmsman worthy to stand up where life's 
powers are given direction, except .that 
sent forth from God — sacrificing, serving, 
saving love. 



Little Sermons for To-day 95 



A GOOD PLACE TO LIVE 

Railroad companies know how strong 
is the tendency of modern folks to change 
residence. We seem always to see greener 
pastures in the distance, more desirable 
dwelling-places in other climes. But you 
do not tell me where you live when you 
say Los Angeles, or San Francisco, or 
New York. There are a hundred cities 
within every municipal boundary — the 
cities of finance, of sin, of society, of 
friendship, of Godliness, with many others. 

I am not informed as to the abiding- 
place of your soul when told that you live 
in wealth, or in poverty ; in ease, or in 
strife; in leisure, or in hurried activity; 
in social prominence, or in home quiet- 
ness. 

To be sure, these items give some 
knowledge of the conditions which sur- 
round you ; but they cannot disclose 
the real nature of the world in which you 
live. It cannot be said how you permit 
them to color your life, or what trans- 
forming rays your soul throws across 
them. 



96 Little Sermons for To-day 

We live only in that which we recog- 
nize and accept. A group of three stood 
before a painting of rare beauty of form 
and color. They were an artist, a sensu- 
ous voluptuary, and a dog. In the same 
surroundings the artist lived in a world 
of beauty and inspiration, the sensualist 
in an atmosphere of lustful desire, and the 
dog was oblivious of it all. 

So, in Los Angeles or elsewhere, in 
favorable conditions or otherwise, people 
live in different worlds according to their 
souls. The abundance of life is in the 
inhabitant, and not the habitation. In 
the contest as to the relative greatness of 
heredity and environment, remember that 
the living soul, created in the image of 
God, and* endowed with his power, is 
greater than both. 

The abode of the soul may be changed 
at any time. Are you tied down to an 
ugly house, an unsightly neighborhood, 
an uninspiring city, a miserable world? 
Then get out. Move on. Not in vans and 
trucks, but in spirit. Fill the old house 
with a new desire to beautify; look upon 
your neighborhood as the home of hu- 
manity whom you may love ; find in your 
city of streets and boundaries the city of 
purity and goodness and service; move 



Little Sermons for To-day 97 

over into the new world of victory by let- 
ting into your heart the Spirit of God. 
With faith, peace and love within, any 
spot on the footstool is a good place to 
live. 



98 Little Sermons for To-day 



MY PAL 

I don't go much on the'ry, 
An' I can't p'raps explain 
Fit to put 'n a philosophy 
What's in my heart and brain. 

But I do know, 

Whare'er I go 

I've got a Pal. 

When I tackle sumpen high, 
Too big a job fer me, 
I call on Him to draw anigh 
And bring the thing to be. 

We work and sing, 

And do the thing, 

My Pal and me. 

When the skies are dark and gray 
'N things are goin' wrong, 
I raise my head and then I say, 
"He'll bring the light along." 

The darkness goes 

With all its woes, 

When He is near. 

Some say that it ain't right 
To call Him such a name. 
You call Him anything you like — 
He'll help you just the same. 

But sure to me 

He seems to be 

A constant Pal. 

Ef He is allers nigh, 

'N helps me on the way; 

Ef He brings abundant life and high 

Why cain't I truly say, 

Fer me and you 

In all we do 

There is a Pal. 



Little Sermons for To-day 99 



THE HEART OF YOUR NEIGHBOR 

The poet cried for some power to give 
us the gift of seeing ourselves as others 
see us. It would truly save us from many 
a blunder and foolish notion. But a 
greater gift would be the power to see 
our fellow as he is. Abounding love and 
overflowing sympathy would drown our 
envy and suspicion. To get down to his 
heart is to find warmth. 

Men seem to be worse than they are. 
You pass a man on a lonely road; you 
wish to speak to him, and do not know 
whether he desires the address of a 
stranger. You feel embarrassed ; he looks 
unconcerned and stern. You pass on, 
wishing that men were more genial and 
friendly. Did you ever stop to consider 
that perhaps his thoughts and emotions 
are akin to yours? So is the roadway of 
life. We pass and look, and see only the 
surface. 

A good question to ask us, "Have I 
looked for the good spot in my brother's 
heart ?" It is there. Black with sin, 
bruised by the world, unlovely it seems, 



100 Little Sermons for To-day 

but somewhere there is that which would 
bring tears to your eyes. If you could 
see the heart of your enemy, your anger 
would give way to pity, your revenge to 
sympathy. If you knew your neighbor as 
he is you would be more gentle and lov- 
ing, and you would know that the world 
is better than it seems. 



Little Sermons for To-day 101 



LIVING TO-DAY 

No wonder life is sometimes called a 
grind. Such a ceaseless, monotonous 
repetition of the same old things! ''Fore- 
noon and afternoon and night; forenoon 
and afternoon and night !" 

What a never-ending task is the neces- 
sity of arising, bathing and dressing 
daily. To think that every morning, one 
year after another, hundreds and thou- 
sands of days, one must get out of bed, 
make his toilet and dress for the day. 
Think of the work of walking — to pick up 
one foot and put it in advance of the 
other, only to lift the second to make it 
lead the first. And then the car-rides, 
office-routine, shop and factory wear and 
tear, dishes, meals and mops — What an 
array of terrifying little grinding duties 
marshalled out on the road in front of us ! 
It is not surprising that thoughts like 
these lead to grouchiness, melancholy, 
suicide. 

Now a lot of our time must be given 
to these little nerve-racking necessities. 
But they are not worthy of first place. 



102 Little Sermons for To-day 

When we worry about them and make 
life consist of these lesser elements we 
become like the centipede who walked 
easily until he was asked which foot he 
moved first, and in what order they 
worked. Then he could not move an 
inch for trying to ascertain how to do it. 

Satisfaction and contentment come 
from adjusting the terrors of every day 
in their proper relation to a great life- 
purpose. For Jesus every town in Gali- 
lee was on the road to Jerusalem; each 
miracle and prayer was a preparation for 
the cross and the resurrection; every 
man and woman and child was an element 
in the kingdom. For the Christian, all 
duties are necessary parts in the pattern 
of life ; every day is a helpful, happy, holy 
division of the Kingdom of God, fitting 
into the Divine purpose with harmony and 
beauty. 

The End. 



Little Sermons for To-day 

By 
Rev. Clyde Shepard, A. M., LL. B., B. 0. 

with an Introduction by 

Rev. Charles Edward Locke, D. D , LL. D. 

Interpretations of the Message of Jesus 
to the Twentieth Century. A book that leaves 
its readers with a surer, maturer faith, and 
with wholesome, confident attitude toward life. 

"The Sermons are little only in quantity 
and are large in quality and purpose, and will 
be read with enjoyment and profit. I bespeak 
for this dainty volume a cordial welcome. " 
Dr. Charles Edward Locke, Pastor of the First 
Methodist Episcopal Church, Los Angeles. 

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